San Francisco – The Alternative Press Expo (APE), the country’s largest alternative and independent comics convention, arrives in San Francisco this weekend, October 1–2, for what promises to be one of the most exciting events to date. Every year APE boasts an impressive guest list, and this year’s lineup is no exception. Special guests appearing include award-winning cartoonists Shannon Wheeler, Kate Beaton, Daniel Clowes, and Adrian Tomine. APE is held at the Concourse Exhibition Center, 635 8th Street in San Francisco.

Additional special guests include Matthew Thurber, whose book 1-800 MICE makes its West Coast premiere at the event. The new book is a collection of the critically acclaimed first five issues of Thurber’s comic book series, with 64 pages of new material. And special guest Craig Thompson also makes a long-anticipated return to the graphic novel medium with his new book Habibi debuting this week. Habibi marks seven years since Thompson’s Blankets, which won numerous industry honors in 2004, including two Eisner Awards.

“We are excited to have such inspiring and accomplished guests at APE this year,” said David Glanzer, APE spokesperson and director of marketing and public relations for parent company Comic-Con International.

In addition to the impressive guest list, APE features two full days of comics programs geared around the show’s special guests and various aspects of independent and alternative comics. These programs promise to be fun, informative, and enlightening conversations with some of the top creative talent working in comics today. And if that were not enough, APE also offers a fascinating, and informative group of hands-on workshops covering everything from comics writing to world building, self-publishing, and bookbinding.

This year APE introduces its first-ever free courtesy shuttle bus service. Attendees can travel from Caltrain, BART, and the San Francisco Centre shopping mall and food court to the Concourse Exhibition Center, with a shuttle leaving every half-hour. Click here for schedules and locations.

Advance tickets for APE are $10.00 single day, $15.00 both days and can be purchased by clicking here.

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About Alternative Press Expo:

Alternative Press Expo (APE), the country’s largest alternative and independent comics convention, is part of Comic-Con International (CCI), a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to creating awareness of, and appreciation for, comics and related popular art forms. The organization achieves its mission primarily through the presentation of conventions and events that celebrate the historic and ongoing contribution of comics to art and culture. In addition to the San Francisco-based APE each fall, CCI organizes San Diego Comic-Con each summer (the world’s largest comics convention of its kind) and WonderCon in Anaheim, California, this spring. On the web: Comic-Con.org, Facebook.com/APExpo, Twitter.com/APExpo.

San Francisco – Coming off its biggest year yet in 2010 with attendance topping 5,500, the Alternative Press Expo (APE), returns to San Francisco this fall at The Concourse Exhibition Center. The Expo, taking place Saturday, October 1 and Sunday, October 2, will again feature the expanded Exhibit Hall and additional programming tracks that debuted in 2010.

Five special guests have already signed on for the show: Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant!), Daniel Clowes (Wilson, Mister Wonderful; courtesy Drawn & Quarterly), Craig Thompson (Blankets, Habibi), Adrian Tomine (Optic Nerve, Scenes from an Impending Marriage), and Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man, I Thought You Would Be Funnier).

“Interest in APE has never been higher as evidenced by our growing attendance and roster of exhibitors,” said David Glanzer, APE’s director of marketing and public relations. “This year’s terrific mix of special guests really helps us continue that momentum as one of the ‘must-see’ independent comics shows in the nation.”

APE showcases the best in alternative and small press comics, with an Exhibit Hall packed with cutting-edge creators featuring their comics, books, zines, original art, hand-made items, and much more. Further details on APE 2011, including a complete list of exhibitors and the full programming schedule, will be announced closer to the event.

About Alternative Press Expo:

Alternative Press Expo (APE), the country’s largest alternative and independent comics convention, is part of Comic-Con International (CCI), a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to creating awareness of, and appreciation for, comics and related popular art forms. The organization achieves its mission primarily through the presentation of conventions and events that celebrate the historic and ongoing contribution of comics to art and culture. In addition to the San Francisco-based APE each fall, CCI organizes San Diego Comic-Con each summer (the world’s largest comics convention of its kind) and San Francisco’s WonderCon each spring. On the web: Comic-Con.org, Facebook.com/APExpo, Twitter.com/APExpo.

A loose, cartoony departure from Tomine’s previous work, Scenes from an Impending Marriage is a sweet-natured, laugh out-loud skewering of the modern marriage process, including hiring a DJ, location scouting, trips to the salon, suit fittings, dance lessons, registering for gifts, and managing familial demands. The most personal and autobiographical work of Tomine’s career, Scenes from an Impending Marriage is a charming, delightful token of love.

“For the third year in a row, D+Q will be exhibiting at the Brooklyn Book Festival. The festival has kindly invited Guy Delisle (BurmaChronicles, Pyongyang, Shenzhen) to be a special guest on the festival’s international stage, which will mark Delisle’s first-ever NYC event. D+Q cartoonists in attendance will be R. Sikoryak (Masterpiece Comics), R. O. Blechman (Talking Lines), Adrian Tomine (Shortcomings), Gabrielle Bell (Cecil & Jordan In New York) and Ron Rege Jr. (Skibber Bee Bye, Against Pain). To celebrate such a momentous gathering of D+Q cartoonists as well as toast to the company’s 20th Anniversary, please join us for cocktails at the Brooklyn purveyor of fine comics, Rocketship, on Saturday evening.”

Beware and behold! MoCCA ArtFest is no longer at the Puck Building, the festival is now at the 68th Armory on Lexington Ave between 25th and 26th Streets. We will have all of our spring 2009 books including George Sprott, The Collected Doug Wright, Melvin Monster, Moomin Volume 4, Shortcomings PB, and the new edition of 32 Stories. On staff from D+Q, will be the comedic dream team of Creative Director Tom Devlin, Publicity Coordinator Jessica Campbell and special US envoy Alison Naturale. Stop by the booth or one of their bits and one of our D+Q specials. And one of our fashionable D+Q totes!

ADRIAN TOMINE & SETH ON TOUR:Adrian Tomine and Seth will be traveling together and each will be presenting their own slide show. All I can say is that Adrian’s is based on his new edition of 32 Stories and Seth’s is based on his stories he has written for the show, some are on comics, some are not. Both are awesome and should not be missed. Questions will be answered, books will be signed.

Harvard Book Store is honored to welcome two comics masters to the Brattle, ADRIAN TOMINE and SETH, for a discussion of their craft as well as the new offerings from each–the paperback edition of Shortcomings, a new boxed-set edition of 32 Stories, and SETH’s new George Sprott, 1894-1975.

TOMINE!

“Tomine’s lacerating falling-out-of-love story is an irresistible gem of a graphic novel. Shortcomingsis set primarily in an almost otherworldly San Francisco Bay Area; its antihero, Ben Tanaka, is not your average comic book protagonist: he’s crabby, negative, self-absorbed, Ã¼ber-critical, slack-a-riffic…. In Tomine’s apt hands, Tanaka’s heartbreaking descent into awareness is reading as good as you’ll find anywhere…. Tomine accomplishes in one panel of this graphic novel what so many writers have failed to do in entire books. In crisp spare lines, he captures in all its excruciating, disappointing absurdity a single moment and makes from it our world.” —Junot Diaz for Publishers Weekly (starred)

AND…the comics that first launched Tomine into his luminary career is now out in a special-edition box set. Redesigned to coincide with the release of Shortcomings in paperback is a brand-new edition of Tomine’s first book, 32 Stories, which collects his inaugural mini-comics in a special edition. This onetime printing includes facsimile reprints of the seven mini-comics packaged in a slipcase, as well as an additional pamphlet containing a new introduction and notes by Tomine.

Adrian Tomine has also designed the new edition of legendary Japanese cartoonist Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s biographical A Drifting Life.

SETH!

First serialized in The New York Times Magazine’s “Funny Pages,” in George Sprott, 1894-1975, celebrated cartoonist and New Yorker illustrator Seth weaves the fictional tale of George Sprott, the host of a long-running television program. The events forming the patchwork of George’s life are pieced together from the tenuous memories of several informants, who often have contradictory impressions. His estranged daughter describes the man as an unforgivable lout, whereas his niece remembers him fondly. His former assistant recalls a trip to the Arctic during which George abandoned him for two months, while George himself remembers that trip as the time he began writing letters to a former love, from whom he never received replies. Invoking a sense of both memory and its loss, George Sprott is heavy with the charming, melancholic nostalgia that distinguishes Seth’s work.

The two New Yorker illustrators will be celebrating their own new releases–Tomine’s new editions of Shortcomings and 32 Stories and Seth’s new graphic novel George Sprott 1894-1975–as well as the releases of the books they have each edited and designed–Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life (Adrian Tomine) and The Collected Doug: Canada’s Master Cartoonist (Seth). The two authors will present slide shows, chat with each other, take questions from the audience and sign books.